Momentum distribution and final state effects in liquid neon

We report high precision inelastic neutron scattering measurements in liquid Neon at a temperature of 25.8 K and saturated vapour pressure. The data covers a wide range of energy and momentum transfer (2 Angstrom(-1) less than or equal to Q less than or equal to 13 Angstrom(-1)). The atomic momentum distribution, n(p), and final state effects (FSE) can be readily extracted from this intermediate wavevector transfer data provided a suitable method of analysis is used. We find that the momentum distribution in liquid Neon is marginally sharper than a Gaussian and that final state effects contribute predominantly an antisymmetric component to the the dynamic structure factor. The width of n(p) and the kinetic energy are increased by 37% above the classical values due to quantum effects. The experimental results are in agreement with theoretical values obtained by a Path Integral Monte Carlo simulation.